Sascha Baron Cohen, you begin your movie with a narrative showing the impoverished Kazakh home of your character, Borat.
Knowing ahead of time that the film had some scenes which were staged like the Pamela Anderson scene, and others scenes which were real. I assumed that this opening scene was staged.
After learning that these scenes weren t staged, I was sickened and repulsed by what you did to humiliate and exploit the misfortune of these poverty stricken villagers from this remote mountain village in Romania. You should be ashamed of yourself.
For God s sake, these people live in huts, have no toilets or running water and make a meager living peddling scrap iron or farming patches of land.
You only paid them about $5 to to humiliate them and destroy their dignity as you portrayed them as a backward group of rapists, abortionists and prostitutes, who drink horse urine and engage in incest, while mocking their poverty and isolation.
You didn t even pay the for permit to film. If you filmed this in a more sophisticated town, I can assure you that you would have had to pay for a permit and official fees just to film in that location.
These villagers didn t know any of this and you took full advantage of them in this situation. How can you sleep at night?
I can appreciate the parody you did about how some people in the US are ignorant and prejudiced .
You brilliantly showed it to us in your social experiment through your film. On the flip side, you also showed how endearing warm and open Americans were as they welcomed your character- a naive foreigner, Borat into their homes and businesses while you pushed the envelope, asking them inappropriate questions. We laughed as we watched their facial and body language reactions towards Borat.
But it is not a good thing to exploit and humiliate the dignity of innocent villagers. You and your crew clearly took advantage of these people but telling them that you were doing a documentary about the hard times in their life. When the villagers saw some footage of your film many of them were in tears.
These were not tears of laughter but tears of pain, embarrassment, sadness, and humiliation.
Had they been a group of SAG actors in a mock village being portrayed this way, it would be one thing. But to humiliate the dignity of innocent people repulses me and saddens me deeply.
As you well know, when an actor with a significant or even an insignificant role in the film signs up to participate in a movie, he or she usually has a savvy agent or entertainment attorney who makes certain that the actor s contract allows for them to receive a percentage of the profits. If the film is a success the actor benefits financially.
You are well aware that these villagers were a significant part of your film.
Without them you could not establish Borat s back story and why he was coming to America as journalist. If these villagers had an agent or adequate representation, I am sure that they would never allow you or your crew to bring livestock and animal manure into their delapitated homes or to allow children to be filmed holding weapons. If this happened in the US, the child labor board and the Department of Social Services would be all over you for exploiting these innocent children.
Not only did you exploit these children but exploited and humiliated a deeply religious one armed elderly man. You used a rubber sex toy in the shape of a fist that you attached to the stump of is missing arm. He apparently had no clue as to what this devise was.
This is cruel and inhumane. There are many disabled actors, several who are missing limbs who you could have used instead of this man. What you did was unacceptable.
If these villagers were lucky enough to have a Hollywood agent to guide them perhaps, they would have enough money now to afford proper plumbing and health care. This is why I am appealing to you to do the right thing.
Just as Madonna invested some of her millions into a poverty stricken Malawian village in Africa after she received something she wanted from that country a baby boy-- you need to do the same.
You too, received something that you wanted from the poverty stricken villagers in Glod, Romania. You too, need to invest some of the millions you made off of your film so that these people can live a better life.
Your life will be significantly better after this film.
You will be living in the mansion you purchased in Beverly Hills. You will make more films, make more millions,and have more opportunities in Hollywood and more perks and toys than you ever dreamed of. A few million dollars shared with these villagers is just a pittance of what you will earn.
So do something good for these people so that you can clear your conscience and live with yourself for the rest of your life.
Yes, Chi Psi frat boys from the University of South Carolina, you definitely were duped by Borat. But you guys are looking at the experience in entirely the wrong way.
You guys were one of the best things in the movie. You came across so gtreat- caring open- funloving- accepting of a foreigner, being kind to a basic stranger with open arms. You were endearing.
You were so endearing that I and I am sure others wanted to see more of you- like in your own frat boy movie or in someone else s frat boy movie. You all had the right look, the right energy, the right personalities and are the right age for a make to really have some type of career going in the acting world in Hollywood. Yes, a few of you were a bit on the obnoxious side making racist and sexist comments, but in Hollywwod that type of behavior seems to be forgivin.
Look at Mel Gibson.
The fact that you have already been in a film is headstart. All you need to do is take acting classes, cold reading classes, speech and voice classes, go on auditions, network,get and agent and or a manager, and there you are a working actor in Hollywood.
Now all of this might take a while, but you can support yourself waiting tables. Who knows you you ll meet. Perhaps an agent or a producer or a casting agent who saw you in the Borat film and liked you in it.
Perhaps they have just the right part for you. Perhaps you are just what they were looking for.
Don t waste perfectly good youthful energy getting hooked up into the court system.
You re not going to win and even if you do win- you will loose. It s no fun being interrogated by an attorney who is sharp, conniving and manipulating. They often have the ability to make minced meat out of you especially during depositions- so don t even go there.
And since you are suing Paramount let me just say that they have a team- an army of attorneys who graduated from the top law schools in the country who have made a career of protecting large movie studios from lawsuits such as yours. They really know what they are doing and are no match for your attorney. So drop it!
They say that your lawsuit has no merit. Believe them!
You ignorantly signed a contact drunk or not you signed it.
Nobody forced you to drink or to sign it.Even if the crew told you that signing the paper had something to do with liability for driving the RV, you had the obligation to read it before you signed it. If you did then you could have made appropriate choices.
Nobody put a gun to your head and said sign this or else. It s a legal document and you lose. So save yourself valuable time you can spend on building a career and a future and drop this lawsuit.
Don t listen to your attorney who thinks there is big money and fame in his future. If you are using a Columbia, South Carolina attorney, Oliver Tailieu who no one has ever heard of until now this is probably the biggest thing that has ever happened to him in his life. So he is out to make his name popular as the attorney who is representing the frat boys in the Borat movie.
The operative word here is him not you .
In addition, nobody forced you into the RV where you picked up a hitchhiker Borat .It appeared that you stopped to pick him up because you were nice generous guys who didn t want to see someone stranded along the road.
That made you look good not bad.
As a communication psychologist, I can assure you that were not duped into making sexist and racist remarks as you made as you and your attorney claim. You are both no different than Mel Gibson, blaming alcohol for his recent hate rave against Jews.
If these feelings are not in your thoughts to begin with they won t come out of you under any circumstances, whether you are drunk or not. Even the national director of operations for your fraternity, Chi Psi Brad Beskin is distancing themselves from your behavior, drunk or not as he said that they condemned statements made by you in the film So your oen fraternity as well as the President of the University of South Carolina are keeping as far away from you as possible.
You also state in your lawsuit that the film made you the object of ridicule, mental anguish, emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation and standing in the community.
First of all you aren t established enough for this film to have made an impact on your reputation, goodwill or standing in your community. You are frat boys college students for goodness sakes and like it or not, the reality is that when a group of college guys get together they do and say stupid things like you did in the movie. We , who have been to college and around frat boys, know that this happens.
It is no secret. The movie just exposed it to more people. No big deal!
So do yourself and your future a favor so you don t suffer from even more emotional and physical distress over dealing with an impending lawsuit, drop your suit and get on with your life. Continue your studies, clean up so no one will detect that the slovenly looking frat boy was you. No one even knows your name which is a good thing.
So there is no loss of your good standing in your community if you do something of value with your life like becoming a productive member of your community.
If your community is that ignorant and can t forget your college years, then move to a new community where nobody will know you, recognize you or remember you from the Borat movie. By the way, the people who went to see the Borat movie are not likely to be the pillars of your community, so drop the lawsuit so you don t continue to bring unwanted attention to yourselves.
I still stand by my original premise. Forget the Lawsuit. Come to Hollywood and get an agent.
You will probably have a lot more success.
Charlie Sheehan when you and Densie were both going at it making awfull allegations about one another in the press as you were going through your separation and impending divorce, I have to admit that things did not look so good for you in terms of public opinion.
When Denise Richards accused you some of the most embarrassing acts possible, my first instict was that is was a pretty low blow to you- no matter how bad the marriage was.
Even if you alledgedly did what she said you did look at porn of underage girls and boys, I felt that her allegations were very serious. They could have ruined your career forever, let alone your life.
As we get to know Denise a lot better through the press, we can begin to see why your marriage may have been in trouble in the first place.
We can begin to see that you are not necessarily the creepy sleeze that she has made you out to be.
In fact she may nned to take a really good look at herself and her own behavior before attacking yours.
When it was reported that Denise took Richie Sambora away from Heather Locklear my thoughts were that no one can take anyone away from anyone if they aren t willing to be taken away.
So as far as her finding another man who is better suited than you, I can fully understand that.
However, we have just seen another side of Denise Richards --a very scarey side a thoughtless , violent, rageful and impulsive side a side full of entitlement, immaturity, and irresponsibility. While I can fully understand the importance of preserving and trying to control one s public image when they are in the spotlight,I cannot understand comprehend the act of physically throwing not one but two laptop computers over a balcony that belonged to the two photographers who allegedly gained unauthorized access to the set where she was filming a movie with Pamela Anderson in Canada.
Instead of going through legal or law enforcement channels she took matters into her own hands and threw valuable property over a balcony HITTING AN 80 YEAR OLD AND A 90 YEAR OLD WOMAN. Thank God they just sustained minor injuries on their arms and not on their heads where they could have been killed by her senselessand thoughless act.
I hope that these two elderly women who were blessed to reach their ripe old ages find a great attorney and seek financial remuneration for the emotional distress and physical distress that Denise Richards, who was obviously so consumed with her own self importance, that she didn't think of the harm that her mindless act done in a moment of anuncontrolled fit of rage,could have caused.
Not only should Denise thank her lucky stars that these women are still alive and that she didn t kill them, but she should thank her lucky stars that according to police, she doesn t have to face charges for her horrible act.
She probably got away with it because she was in western Canada. Had she done this in any city in the USA, I can assure you that no matter who she was, police would never have been so lenient.
She would have been legally charged with vandalism and would have been held liable for any physcial and emotional damages to these women and to anoyone else who may have been traumatized by her irresponsible behavior.
So Charlie, I think people are re-evaluating all of the horrible things Denise said about you. They are taking a closer look at Denise.
Perhaps the angry, violent behavior and vicious behavior she recently displayed against the paparazzi who were merely taking her picture, is a good indication of the angry verbally violent and vicious behavior that you perhaps had to endure throughout your marriage to her.
Now we can begin to see both sides and you may very well have been falsely accused, based on our observations of Denise's out of control behavior.
After watching Kirstie Alley show off her new Jenny Craig body in a bikini I discovered that her body language spoke volumes.
Reluctant to take off her sarong, she finaly takes it off and displays her body - and not in a confident way. Her shoulders weren't back and head held high with a huge smile on her face like you would expect someone to be postured if they were truly proud of their accomplishment.
Instead, Kirstie/s head was bowed down.
Her shoulders were rounded and there was no smile. Instead, she looked rather pained. Why?
Becuase she most likely was recovering from the abdominal surgery- the tummy tuck to make her satomach look flat and flawless.
Nobody who is 56 years old as she is and who has lost 75 pounds has such a firm abdomen no matter how much exercise they do. It is not physically possible.
Loose skin needs to be excised as it was in Kirsties case. Her belly button was vertical instead of horizontal (which happens with age).
She was probably hunched over because she was in pain and not fully healed from the surgery.
It takes months and months to heal so that is why I assume she was a bit contracted in her posture.But you may say, well maybe she was just shy and embarassed about coming out in a bikini.
No, I reply to you becuase there is nothing shy about Kirstie.
She is full of confidence, vim and vigor. She is outspoken and not shy about anything. She certianly wasn't shy about being obese and eating cake while chewing with her mouth full on the Jenny Craig commercials.
So I
stick to my strong belief that she had abdominal surgery to make herself look good for the bikini reveal on Oprah.
Now about Jenny Craig. The diet is dangerous as far as I am concerned!
It is PURE POISON to anyone who is a pre-diabetic or a diabetic. It is FULL of SUGAR.
I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I tried the diet.
Breakfasts consist of a sugar laden muffin, sugar laden cereal, sugar laden pancakes with syrup or sugar laden french toast with sugar. The snacks are sugar laden protien bars. The lunches and dinners are frozen sugar laden entres.
The "snaks are sugar laden rasberry cheesecake, sugar laden chocolate cake, pretzels, popcorn, sugar laden trail mix, sugar laden peaches in sugar laden syrup,chesse puffs, sugar laden lemon cake and other sugar laden treats which make you crave more and more. Then there arte the high salt and sugar laden soups and crackers, and chilli.
The portions are small so anyone can lose weight by sticking to this 1500 to 1750 calorie count a day.
However when you get off of the Jenny Craig diet, BEWARE!!
Because you are so addicited to sugar now that you have had it in large quantities 5 times a day, you crave moe and more sugar.
Now you are used to eating sugar laden foods so you crave more and more- portion size goes up and there you are- you have gained more weight than when you began Jenny Craig.
So I am clearly NOT a fan of Jenny Criag and I am definitely NOT a fan of deceiving the public like Kirstie Alley and the Jenny Craig executives, who paid her millions of dollars to promote the company did. I find it unconscionable to lead people to believe they can take off 75 pounds like Kirstie did and have a flat tummy and wear a bikini with no stretch marks or excess skin hanging down.
b) wanted to keep herself in the public eye which is essential as a performer as visibility begets visibility which begets work.
All of the hoopla over Kirstie loosing the weight is fine, becuase it is my belief that no matter what techniques you use to get the weight off and not be obese is a good good thing.
But what is NOT a good thing and what I object to is fooling the public and not being completely honest with them.
People who don't have Kirstie's resources will go into this, in my opinion extremely unhealthy eating program with unrealistic expectations all becuase Kirsty alley mislead them. No, on second thought she lied to them just like she lied on Oprah. Omission is a subcategory of lying in my opinion.
While no one blinks an eye when it comes to equality between the sexes in the workforce, it s a different story when it comes to personal relationships.
It has been reported in the media that there is a new trend for successful actresses to leave their underperforming spouses behind. The media mentions successful Reese Witherspoon, Whitey Houston, Hillary Swank and of course Brittney Spears leaving behind their respective mates, Ryan Phillipe, Bobby Brown, Chad Lowe,and Kevin Federline.
This is not a new trend. It has gone on for decades. The fact is that most men in American society have a difficult time coping with successful women.
Why is that you ask? It is due to many reasons but mainly ego. No matter how liberated we are, it has been ingrained in our society that the man should be more powerful.
The man should be the breadwinner . Well this is not always the case. So, when the reverse happens and the woman yields more money and power, resentment on both ends often rears it s ugly head.
How does this resentment manifest? It can manifest in directly aggressive hostile behavior, or it can be a more subtle passive aggressive behavior. In any event, a once loving relationship often turns abusive when there is resentment of a woman s fame and fortune, due to the man often feeling inadequate.
The first sign of their feeling inadequate is the insecure and inadequate man's intense desire to control their famous spouse. We saw this in full action with Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown s relationship as we watched them in their pathological reality series. All too often the woman who wants to please her man will do things she thinks will please her man .
All to often, the woman goes way out of her way to do this and often looses sight of who she really is...
how beautiful, powerful, and substantial she is.
A perfect example of this was when Brittney Spears started to dress as slovenly and act as crudely as Kevin Federline early in their relationship. Brittney, once the meticulous fashion plate and trendsetter was now reduced to wearing torn outfits, going shoeless, having dirty hair, dirty feet and looking unkempt and disheveled all of the time.
In essence, she was mirroring Kevin. He was a slacker a loafer, living off his wife and overspending her hard earned money. She in turn, became a loafer as well.
Since she married Kevin, she did nothing to enhance her career. She became flustered, irresponsible as indicated in all of the mishaps that occurred with her and her baby (ie. driving with the baby on her lap, almost dropping the baby, etc.
) She finally broke downionally emot on camera for all to see in her Matt Lauer interview. This was clearly her scream for help!
Whittney s lfe was no better with allegations of drug use, going in and out of rehab, and being with a man who was constantly in trouble with the law for something or another.
Seeing an emaciated and out of control Whitney was shocking when we remember her as one of the most beautiful, well spoken, well poised women of our time. Like Brittney, her career perished during her marriage with Bobby.
While we are never privy to what goes on behind closed doors with couples it is quite evident that there was something really bad going on in Hillary Swank s marriage, (like his substance abuse which she reported in the press) especially since she FORGOT to thank him during the most import of her life.
Obviously, he wasn t that important or he had done something that was so upsetting to her psyche that she blocked him out completely in a very crucial moment in her life--getting an Academy Award.
Likewise, when examining the photos of Ryan Phillipe standing next to his vibrant award winning wife, we see his body language as someone saying " I m not happy . I wish it was me.
Why is she getting all the glory?" There was hardly a smile on his face whenever he stood near her in photo opportunities or was in her presence. Yes, they smiled for the cameras, but his heart wasn t into it.
It clearly showed.
So the bottom line is for a successful women to marry someone who is just as successful or even more and more important and powerful, a man who isn t competitive with her but respects her. This is the only solution if a power women wants a happy marriage.
Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony , Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Sela Ward and her husband Howard, a successful businessman, Sting and his wife Trudy, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, Warren Beatty and Annette Benning, Arnold Schwartzneggr and Maria Shriver, are just a few of the Hollywood couples who are true matches- uncompetitive equals who make it work.
So the bottom line, if you are a successful woman and want to have a better chance in making your marriage last, marry a successful man who is at your level or above you financially or power-wise.
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